Editorial: Prescription for conflicts

Saturday, April 28, 2007 | 7:23 a.m.

O ne of the nation's premier medical journals reports that more than 90 percent of doctors polled in a recent survey say they have received meals, lecture fees or other perks from companies that make prescription drugs or medical devices.

The survey was conducted by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, a nonprofit physicians' research group, and is published in the most recent edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. It shows that about 80 percent of the doctors who responded had received gifts of food or drug samples from industry salespeople. Thirty-five percent of the doctors said medical manufacturers had reimbursed them for traveling to conventions or medical education programs, and 28 percent said they had been paid consulting fees for giving lectures or enrolling patients in clinical trials of new drugs or devices.

A Harvard Medical School health policy expert, and one of the survey's authors, told USA Today that the 28 percent of doctors receiving consultant's fees seemed "a pretty high percentage." And, the expert noted, social science research shows that even an inexpensive gift can influence a person's behavior.

Trade groups that represent pharmaceutical companies and professional groups for doctors, such as the American Medical Association, have ethical standards and guidelines designed to encourage salespeople and doctors to make certain that all interactions and relationships are professional and only for the benefit of patients. And some of the perks do help patients, such as the free samples for expensive prescription drugs that doctors often pass along to patients who cannot afford them.

Still, it is hard to believe that doctors receiving a free trip to a convention or being treated to a lavish meal won't be at least somewhat influenced when it comes time to talk business. For the sake of patients' confidence, doctors should keep even the appearance of a conflict of interest in check.